I picked up a small comment from Hannes Papenberg from the Joomla 1.6 development team some time ago. He was talking about the process of upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6.

Today, Joomla is upgraded by copying all the files for the upgrade into the web root of the site. This works fine, and there are also some upgrade scripts that makes this process even faster.

Upgrading to a completely new version of Joomla is another case. Joomla 1.6 will have a lot of new functions and changes. Not only the files will change but also the structure of the tables, and some files will be deleted. Those things don't happen in a regular upgrade. Thus, the upgrade process is not just about copying files. Normally, the process would be to delete all of the files for 1.5, and then migrate all data, image files and setup into Joomla 1.6 manually. This is not ideal. For this reason, Hannes from the development team has proposed that a migration script be made.

Only some ten days has passed since my last update on Joomla 1.6. Then, the latest news was that Joomla 1.6 beta 1 would be released around now.

Today, however - the Joomla Production Team released news that they would soon announce the release of Joomla 1.6 Alpha 2. Apparently, the ACL (Access Control List) functionality is what makes the project take more time than previously expected.

Anything Digital and Yannick Gaultier has decided to give their users a discount on sh404SEF. This is to mark the joint-venture between Anything Digital and Yannick to continue the development, support and documentation of the SEF component sh404SEF. The codes are valid until September 30th 2009.

You will find the promo codes in this post.

During the last couple of years, I've created a few Joomla websites with Virtuemart as the e-commerce component. Although I struggled a bit to start with, I think it works fine now. I still find the control panels quite cluttered and not exactly intuitive, though. It took a lot of time to get to know all the quirks and oddities (like links that lead to not-yet implemented features...!). After a while, however, I have come to like VirtueMart, and have managed to set up a few quite successful webshops using it.

One of the things I don't like so much is the lack of themes and templates made for Virtuemart. A few weeks ago I was made aware of Yagendoo, a company specializing in templates and extensions for Joomla.

After using ChronoComments for a few months, I discovered that the component actually inserted a lot of crappy code in my template. It also made my site fail HTML validation, which really s**ks.

Those things, combined with the fact that ChronoComments hasn't been updated for a year now, urged me to look for an alternative. I just regret not doing it before ;)

As you might have read, the Joomla SEF extension sh404SEF was almost discontinued some weeks ago. The reason for this was that the developer, Yannick Gaultier, told the community in a blog post he was not able to continue the development of sh404SEF in his spare time.

After a lot of feedback from the Joomla community, he later announced that he'd found a solution for the continuation of the project through a Joomla company.

Late last night, Yannick published a new post, sharing the latest news about the project - and this is good news for all involved!

Moxy is the September 2009 release from RocketTheme. The theme balances both a simple and complex design, from the inclusion of stunning header styles, complimented by conservatively styled mainbody areas.

The Moxy template is a bit toned down compared to previous templates from RocketTheme. This is a plus in my world, as some of the earlier templates could go a little over the top design-wise. In my opinion, Moxy is very nicely designed.

RokQuickCart, a simple and elegant shopping cart component, debuts with the release of Moxy.

Read on for some of the other features of the new template.

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When Joomla 1.6 Alpha was released a few months ago, the original plan was to release the beta version six weeks after that, in August. However, the time came and no beta arrived. So what happened, and what's the status of Joomla 1.6 as of now?

Hannes Papenberg from the Joomla 1.6 Release Team has done a write-up on the current status. He explains why Joomla 1.6 beta 1 was delayed and outlines some of the features we will be seeing.

I've picked up a few Joomla related coupons that may save you a few dollars if you consider buying template or extension products from the following providers.

• JoomlaPraise JP SuperBundle
  Use the coupon code BeatTheHeat to get 20% discount
• Yagendoo Templates and Extensions for Joomla and Virtuemart
  10% for the next week when using the coupon code yagendoo

Enjoy :)

I was very happy to read todays update from Yannick Gaultier about the future of sh404SEF.

It seems he's talking with a "well established Joomla company" and I hope we'll see the continuation of sh404SEF in this company. With Yannick on board as the main developer. That's great news, Yannick - and for the rest of the Joomla community it's pure bliss :)